


Really Harping on the Clone Saga

by SereneSorrow



Series: Y.J.S.M.A.U. [1]
Category: DCU, Under the Red Hood, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, The Light, Triple Agent?, Undercover, double agent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-03-03 12:18:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13341105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneSorrow/pseuds/SereneSorrow
Summary: After the Light kidnapped the soulmate he'd only just met Jason Todd was forced to work for the Light, keeping secrets from both them and Batman. Even after his death Jason is a man on a mission, to find and rescue ALL of his soulmates.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The non-con is a long way off, I'm not actually sure if I'll write it in detail or just mention that it happened... that's all the detail I'll say right now since I'm still working on all this.
> 
> from young justice wikia the characters ages are supposedly: 2010-11 ages: Tim 9, Jason 11, Dick 13, Speedy 18/15; 2016: Tim 14, Jason X, Dick 19, Speedy 23/15  
> but for Chapter 1 here Jason is 10 and Speedy is 15 because I said so.
> 
> Also, I've challenged myself to post SOMETHING (new work, new series, new chapter) every day, so if I don't just give up on this challenge tomorrow then you'll be seeing a lot of various stories with very short chapters.

     Jason Todd scowled as his father ruffled his hair. “Just go take a walk while I get this deal done.” Willis Todd ordered the boy, narrowing his eyes angrily when his son stared back at the man.

     “Whatever.” Jason muttered as he looked away before shuffling off and back out of the warehouse.

     Like he really needed to leave, he already knew everything his dad did about this job. They were getting some kind of explosive from Star City that was supposed to burn in a different color, because of the whole Two-Face henchman thing. Two-Face wasn't even that clever. He'd never really gotten one over on the Bat like some of the other crazies had, _why'd his dad have to pick such a lame villain to work for anyway?_

     Jason kicked at the loose shards of concrete he passed as he turned a corner. The guys his dad was meeting had been late anyway, and he hadn't even asked about that, _what had happened there anyway?_ Jason wondered as he wandered between darkened warehouses. He started shivering in the cold since he only had a T-shirt and his irritation with Willis grew. Willis was the one who'd insisted that he come along on this job, _and now he didn't want him around when the actual deal went down? What the Hell?_ Jason slammed a fist into the side of a building as he passed without bothering to look around him.

     Suddenly a blur of red dropped from the sky right in front of him and before he could take in a good view of whatever it was he'd been knocked to the ground in a tangle of limbs not all of which belonged to him. Disoriented and trying to sort himself out he came face to face with a black domino mask. He blinked as the mask stared blankly at him and then he noticed that the mask was worn by a kid a little older than him who was wearing a red hooded sweatshirt hanging open over a red and yellow costume.

     “What's a kid like you doing in a place like this at night?” The older boy asked, making Jason pale as he froze, the line of script on his arm burning suddenly. His soulmark. His soulmate. Jason was in shock.

     “Are you even older than me?” Jason demanded, oddly the only thing he could think to focus on. He had a feeling this would be the point that he would be the most angry about under other circumstances.

     The masked kid had gotten to his knees and started brushing himself off but he froze when Jason spoke, then his head whipped up again, definitely staring at him how. The mask gaped at him for a moment, his mouth hanging open comically.

     “You trying to catch flies?” Jason jabbed defensively. The staring was making him uncomfortable.

     “Are you- Seriously? Now?” The mask reached forward for his arm. He muttered to himself, pulling away to strip off the sweatshirt and reveal the rest of his costume, including a bunch of arrows over his shoulder.

     Great, some kind of hero, not that the mask hadn't already made it obvious, but he didn't really know about any of the heroes outside of Gotham, and hero worship wasn't really a good hobby for a kid when your dad's a henchman. With a startling flutter of cloth the sweatshirt billowed over Jason's head and then settled around him.

     “Wait here for me, I've got to stop a weapons deal in warehouse five. We can talk after.” The other boy said, and Jason peered at him out of the huge red hood, fighting a blush and another shiver.

     The mask pulled out a bow, from where Jason couldn't begin to imagine, and then darted away into the darkness. Jason blinked at how quickly he was just gone before snorting derisively. _Stay here? Right._ Hero boy had another thing coming if he thought he could tell Jason what to do like that.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even shorter chapter than usual but that is clearly where a chapter ends. I mean obviously. :D

     Stubbornly Jason started into the darkness after the hero. He couldn't follow the other boy's actual path but he had said that he was going to warehouse five so Jason just had to find that particular building himself. Each of the warehouses had huge numbers painted on their doors so following the decreasing numbers was easy.

     Two buildings away he could already see a group of vehicles around the building he wanted. There were a number of goons hanging around, _yeah that wasn't suspicious at all_ , and Jason ducked between the buildings before any of the men turned back in his direction. There were smaller doors along the other sides of these buildings, but he wasn't sure if what his dad had taught him about lock picking so far would be enough to get through the security key pads he could see on these doors. Luckily it looked like someone had already disabled the first lock he tried. _The mask?_

     Jason yanked the door open and pushed inside quickly, before he could worry about anyone watching this door from the inside. Luckily no one was and Jason squinted in the dimly lit room, trying to determine where the mask had gone. He snuck around a few rows of shelves full of boxes but before he could decide on a real direction for his search someone yanked on the sweatshirt and wrenched him around.

     “What do you think you're doing? You can't be here!” The archer hissed angrily.

     “I don't need your permission! I can-” Jason started but the archer cut him off.

     “Just stay with me, stay down and don't get in the way! For goodness sake don't let anyone shoot you alright?” The archer said as he dragged Jason behind him and on what seemed to be a particular path through the warehouse before dumping Jason behind a stack of crates.

     The look the mask gave him, even when he couldn't really see any eyes, was clearly enough a look that said Jason would be in serious trouble if he didn't stay put and Jason rolled his eyes but sat down obediently anyway. _For now_. The archer climbed up the crates and Jason was irritated that he didn't know what was going on.

     Now that he was paying more attention he thought that he could hear voices on the other side of the crates, where the mask was now watching. He wanted to go up there and look too, but he wasn't stupid. If the mask was about to start a fight then his position up there was probably about to be a target.

     Yep. He was right.

     The mask had been found out, or maybe he'd gotten their attention on purpose. Jason didn't know, but now there was a pretty loud fight going on and he was starting to think he should have waited outside after all, not that he was _scared_ , he was ten years old after all, but he couldn't exactly stop a bullet. So he stayed where he was and waited for his archer to come back.

     He didn't come back.

     After all the shooting was over it was even harder to hear what was going on, but voices that didn't belong to his archer sounded triumphant. That wasn't a good sign, and Jason pulled the red sweatshirt closer around himself, looking down at the fabric as he worriedly bit his lip. He needed to find out what was going on, he couldn't just assume things. He turned and put his hands on the crate, getting ready to boost himself up, but when he glanced up in the direction he was planning to go he came face to face with a maniacal red grin in a ghostly face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't get used to daily updates! I don't know how long my focus will remain on this story, I'm going to work on other things for the next few days. :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone for the comments! I haven't replied because I spent my time writing you another chapter! :)

     Oh god. The JOKER.

     Jason froze, trying not to look scared. _Hadn't the archer said that this deal was for some guy named Luthor? What the hell was Joker doing in Star City?_

     Joker laughed as Jason scrambled back and Joker lunged forward and caught him, one hand latching onto the sweatshirt and dragging him forward. Somehow the lanky villain hefted Jason over his shoulder and bounded back to the other side of the crates.

     “Well lookie what I found!” He tattled as he tossed Jason to the ground in a bright light, where Jason was surrounded by a group of people who were clearly villains by the way they were dressed though Jason didn't recognize half of them.

     Jason stared back at the creeps without moving.

     “Hell, he's not a sidekick.” One of them commented with a disdainful look over him.

     “Did he come with Speedy?” Another asked.

     “I doubt the arrow brat would bring a civilian along.” What looked like a white gorilla said.

     “Then what's he doing here?” Poison Ivy asked.

     “Does it matter? He's seen us now. Just get rid of him.” A man with a burning skull for a face said.

     Jason balked at that. If he didn't come up with something quick these lunatics were gonna kill him. “My dad works for Two-Face!” He blurted out loudly. If he wasn't scared he'd be embarrassed. “He told me to take a walk and I got lost. All these stupid buildings look alike, not my fault I got the wrong one. Anyway, 's not like I care what you guys are doing.” Jason's words were running together in a rush but he figured that would be okay if they didn't kill him.

     “Hey wait... I've seen you before!” Joker clapped his hands loudly. “You're that kid who was sitting outside the old comedy club when I worked with double face that time!”

     “Uh, yeah, like I said.” Jason answered, remembering that meeting as well.

     “That doesn't mean he can be trusted. He's a kid!” The burning skull said again.

     “Say junior, I've been working on something, how'd you like to help out uncle J with something? Two-Face won't mind if I borrow you.” Joker asked him.

     “You want to use _him?_ ” one of the others demanded.

     “Who else? Some random kid or this one who's already got experience? He'll do great, won't you kid? You'll do your best for old Uncle Joker won't you?”

     “Are you gonna kill me if I don't?” Jason asked nervously.

     “Yep.” The clown smiled wider.

     “What do you want me to do?” Jason asked instead of agreeing.

     “You're going to be Batman's new sidekick!” Joker exclaimed, cackling while the rest of the villains glared at him.

     “Well if all of that's settled, can we get this deal over with?” Poison Ivy asked.

     “Yes, let's finish up here. Speedy needs to be transported to the Light quickly.” Another man who hadn't spoken yet said.

     “Oh, goodie, time for us to skedaddle kid.” Joker clapped a firm hand on Jason and steered him away from the group, Jason's eyes catching sight of the archer slumped on the floor with henchmen standing over him pointing guns at him even though he looked unconscious. _Dammit, what the hell was he supposed to do now? It wasn't like he could rescue the guy from these freaks._


	4. Chapter 4

     “First thing's first. Taking care of your old man!” Joker declared as he steered Jason out of the warehouse. “Say, what'd Two-Face want from Star anyway?”

     Jason nervously glanced up at the clown before staring strait ahead as they walked. “Some kind of explosive that burns in a different color than the one he's already got. You know, for the two of everything thing he's obsessed with.” Jason explained.

     “You know your stuff, for a kid who got dragged along to work with daddy for the day!” The madman's compliment made Jason's skin crawl and he had to force down a shudder.

     “I guess. It's not like my dad's a genius or nothin'. He was talkin' about it on the phone when we were drivin' out here.”

     “Really? Say, guess that explains the police cars.” Joker said as they peered around a corner.

     Jason didn't see any black and whites, just two more cars than had been outside the warehouse when he'd left. He looked closer, noticing that the irregular paint jobs had been done over new paint instead of rust and there wasn't a single cracked window. Pretty good cars for more crooks. Huh, so the clown knew his stuff at least. That made Jason feel better for a split second, and then he realized how terrifying it was that the Joker was actually _smart_. All those clown based crimes all over Gotham actually had a thought put into them, it wasn't just some mad killer destroying stuff left and right, this guy actually knew what he was doing. That was really terrifying.

     “Well, looks like we don't have to worry about your old man's opinion, just gotta run it by Two-Face and then you're mine!” The clown chuckled to himself and then skipped off back the way they'd come, dragging Jason all the way as he tried not to trip over his own feet while trying to keep up with the jerking movement.

     The car that Jason was shoved into the front seat of was a brownish purple color, the shade probably changed in daylight to more purple but was mostly brown right now. The man behind the wheel was overweight and his clown costume looked so haphazard that he was probably just humoring his boss's theme. That didn't make him less of a threat to Jason's continued health and Jason stayed quiet as he put on his seat belt and the Joker explained why he was here from where he lounged sprawled out in the back seat.

     “To Gotham, and step on it Punch! I want to get the new show started!” The clown yelled.

     The maniacal laughter as the car peeled out of the warehouse district made Jason bite his lip to hold back a whimper. He'd been kidnapped by a madman, his dad was in jail and his soulmate had just been traded from one group of villains to another.

     This was not how his night was supposed to go. It was supposed to be some boring deal where his dad would trade with some Star City criminals and then they'd go back to Gotham. He'd be back in his own bed, hopefully without a beating, soon enough. That was what he'd thought would happen.

     Instead he'd met his soulmate, who turned out to be a _hero_ , and then lost him to a bunch of freaks who were going to do who knows what to him while Jason was turned into some kind of pawn in the schemes of the craziest Arkhamite there ever was.

     He couldn't cry. He wasn't going to. _What would Joker do to him if Jason was that weak?_ He was ten years old, not a baby, he didn't _cry_.


	5. Chapter 5

     Two-Face didn't care. Sure Jason hadn't expected him to, Jason was just the kid that Willis dragged along with him sometimes and complained about when he was not around, and sometimes when he was. He'd figured though that there would at least have been some kind of argument about it, but in the end Jason was traded from one villain to another for nothing. Apparently Two-Face didn't even want to pretend Jason had value to try and get something from the clown.

     Great. Even psycho deadbeat criminals thought that he was worthless. Jason scowled behind the clowns back from where he'd been sitting for the last half hour. Luckily everyone was ignoring him. The clown's henchmen gathered around their leader as he expliained whatever stupid plan he wanted to pull next.

     “Hiya cutie!” A voice, somehow gravely and high pitched at the same time startled him and Jason jerked to look over his shoulder at Harley Quinn who had snuck up on him.

     “This our little birdy Mista J? You find one you like at last?” She called to the crowd of men across the room. Joker didn't bother looking up, still outlining whatever details he thought were more important than his girl.

     “Pooh, Puddin always gets like that.” She said, doing some weird kind of flip so that instead of standing behind him she was seated on the brightly colored oversized toy block to the right of his own. “So you are the kid right?” She asked him directly.

     “'S what he said. I'm supposed to be the Bat's next partner.”

     “Yeah, we just gotta get the other bird out of the way, then we can plant our own little cuckoo egg and the Bat can teach you to fly!” Harley said with a crazy wide smile at him. It freaked Jason out. _How could these people be so messed up? Why the hell did this woman love the Joker?_ It made absolutely no sense to him.

     His 'training' made even less sense. Half the time Jason was sure it was all just an excuse for Joker to beat him, with Harley throwing out confusing advice. He hated it, he just wanted to go home and see his mom, she didn't know why Jason and Willis had just disappeared. He wanted to go see that she was okay but there was never any chance for him to slip away. Someone was always awake, and the henchmen would glare at him if he moved around too much without directions to do so.

     Eventually he figured it out. They couldn't actually teach him to fight or anything, if they did the Bat would figure out who he'd learned from and it would be a dead giveaway that Joker had sent him. They were really just killing time until they figured out _how_ to get the Bat to pick him up, and keep him around.

     Joker seemed pretty insistent about getting rid of Robin first, actually using Jason as a replacement. He had a lot of time to think things over. Jason was in this whole mess because of his soulmate, he should be furious with the other boy, and for a while- _months_ -he was. Something happened though. He was running through the funhouse, short of breath and panicked because Joker's version of 'tag' involved a bat and Harley's ridiculously oversized yet currently terrifying mallet, and just when he turned a corner and dove aside as the bat came towards him his ankle started burning.

     It was like it was on fire, and Jason was sure that he'd avoided the bat hitting him but it felt like he'd just broken his ankle. He grunted in pain as he sprang back to his feet. Having become familiar with the look on Joker's face Jason knew he wasn't about to stop today's 'training', not for any excuses Jason could come up with. Surprisingly he could still run, even though it hurt, but the pain was subsiding.

     It was entirely gone by the time Jason managed to get away from Joker and hide. He pulled up his pant leg anyway and shoved his sock down out of the way. A line of black writing circled his ankle.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! I'm back! I'm finally back!  
> Also, just to let everyone know, I've decided to start using the 'bio' section on my profile page to keep people updated on what I'm working on and when I think I'll be able to update again, so if I don't update for a while you can check there to see what's going on, because I never actually MEAN to stop updating, things just get in the way.

     Jason stared at the letters in astonishment. He was so distracted he didn't even notice Harley popping up beside him until she had her face inches away from his ankle, staring in fascination and reading over the words out loud. She snorted a laugh.

     “Your soulmate must be a funny guy.” She giggled. Jason didn't get what was funny about it.

     “Hey! Wait a minute, you already have a mark! I've seen it on your arm!” She accused with comical outrage.

     “Yeah. I don't know what happened, my ankle just started hurting before. Now this is here.” Jason shrugged defensively.

     “Spooky! Wonder how this happened then, never heard of someone havin' more than one, and I would have back when I was getting my degree.” She said as she peered so closely at the words her nose was almost touching his ankle.

     “So you don't know what it means?” Jason asked, actually desperate enough that he was willing to listen to her advice for once.

     “Well, do you still have the other one?” She asked, not waiting for a reply as she was already dragging his sleeve up his arm. “Huh, so he's not dead.” She said as she twisted his arm around to read the words.

     “What? How can you tell?” Jason had no clue what she was talking about.

     She looked at him like _he_ was the crazy one. “What, didn't nobody tell ya 'bout these things?”

     “Yeah!” He said defensively. “Some, I mean... they're the first words your soulmate says to you.”

     “Well yeah, but if it turns grey it means they're dead, and if you don't have one and then you get one it means that they were just born.” Harley said, dropping his arm and patting him on the head in a sarcastic imitation of teacher and student.

     “So I've got two? And one of them was just born?” Jason asked, staring up at her with a puzzled expression.

     Harley propped her hands on her hips and screwed up her face to look like she was thinking hard. “Like I said, never heard of more than one. It's not like twins ever have the same person, because even identical twins aren't the same person after all.”

     Joker's sudden burst of laughter startled them both, not that Harley was upset about it, but they'd both jumped and turned to face the other clown with racing hearts.

     “Identical! Hahaha that's funny. Oh man, is _that_ why you were with the arrow brat?!” Joker exclaimed. “Oh, boy no wonder, you'll be a perfect spy! Just like your soulmate!”

     “What are you talking about?” Jason demanded but the clown just kept laughing. “Harley? What's he talking about?!” Jason demanded of the the woman instead, but she didn't seem to be in on the joke.

     “They must have gotten round to cloning the boy at last! Good to know that the plan is coming along!” Joker said, clapping a hand on Jason's ankle to have a look at the mark for himself. Jason flinched hard at the touch and winced as his ankle was twisted almost too far as Joker read the words.

     “Excellent timing, and I just had an idea for how to get Batman's attention too! I guess Luthor made the right choice for his spy! It's all working out perfectly!” Joker finally released his foot and just kept laughing louder and louder, keeping the details of his joke to himself.

     Jason just stared at the clowns as Harley joined in with a quieter, more nervous sounding laugh of her own. _Clone?_ He couldn't wrap his mind around it, _was that even possible? Had those villains somehow cloned his archer?_

     Jason wound up staring blankly at the words on his ankle as the laugh track faded into background noise. Not only was his soulmate a hero, who'd been kidnapped by villains, which Jason could do _nothing_ about, but now there were two of them, _him_ , that this 'Luthor' person was doing who knows what to, and the only person Jason could rely on getting any information about all of this from was the Joker! The most unreliable source of information in probably the whole world.

     He was _not_ going to cry. No matter how much he wanted to. Jason was ten years old and surrounded by villains. He was not going to _cry_.


	7. Chapter 7

     Jason sat in the passenger seat nervously. He didn't even bother to glance to his left, at Batman, as the man drove. The inside of the Batmobile was darker than Jason would have thought, even with all of the lights on the dashboard.

     He didn't know where exactly they were going, Batman hadn't said much after Jason had stumbled over his explanation about the tires. He'd blurted out the first thing he could think of, since the clowns hadn't bothered to give him a script. They'd just told him it was time to meet the Bat and then they'd disappeared off to somewhere and one of the other henchmen had tossed him in an old car that looked like it had been stolen from a junk yard and driven him to a spot in crime alley. Jason had been shoved out of the car and he'd barely avoided getting hit in the head with the crowbar the clown had tossed out after him before the car was driving away.

     Stupidly Jason had just sat there for a moment, before remembering where he was and scrambling into the nearest unoccupied shadow. Looking around carefully he'd determined that he was alone, and why. The Batmobile was parked at the other end of the alley. His first thought on seeing it was that he was supposed to act like he needed help and get the Bat's attention, but then he realized that he wasn't exactly the sort of person Batman tended to help. Anyway, _what was the crowbar for then?_

     The second idea he came up with was that he was supposed to smash up the car, break the windows or something, but he realized that he'd probably get the wrong kind of attention from Batman. The clowns wanted him to be Batman's new partner, so if this was some kind of tryout then he was supposed to impress Batman somehow. _So what was he supposed to be able to do? Robin was good at fighting right?_ He was also supposed to be smart though, and figure stuff out. _So what could Jason figure out with a crowbar and a Batmobile?_

     The tires were really the only thing he could think of that involved both of the puzzle pieces he had, so he'd gotten to work. He'd actually gotten started on the last tire before Batman had shown up and started asking him all sorts of questions. Eventually they'd just put the tires back on together and gotten in the car, and now Jason was trying not to panic and blurt out that he was really working for the Joker.

     He did _not_ feel better when the Batmobile drove right through some kind of hidden garage door and sped up to twice their previous speed down an empty, dimly lit, tunnel. Jason was starting to wonder if he'd been safer with the clowns when the car screeched to a halt in a giant cave.

     Getting out of the car slowly Jason gaped at all the cars, planes _and boats_ surrounding them. He didn't think his jaw could drop any farther but the sight of _Bruce Wayne_ unmasked did the job. That was it. Jason was so screwed. _Did the Joker know who Batman was already? Was Jason supposed to tell him?_ Oh hell, _he'd know anyway wouldn't he?_ If Jason was seen with _Bruce Wayne_ then it would be obvious to every one of those villains that had seen Joker recruit him. They'd all know who Batman really was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dun dun dun. Of course that's assuming all those villains got a good look at Jason and actually bothered to remember him. ^_^


End file.
